Dear Editor,
Earlier this year a reader wrote in about witnessing the disproportionately harsh treatment by police of a family with a young boy who was fishing on a Wednesday on the beach at Castelejo.
They were fined heavily and treated as if they were major league criminals and a threat to society.
I don’t imagine that they or any friends to whom they have told the story will visit Portugal again.
This is how you combat recession!
Our taxi driver was stopped on the way to our hotel in Lagos a few weeks ago and we were detained for about 45 minutes while some young policeman did a fabulous impression of what it must have been like before the Berlin Wall was torn down.
The awful thing was how resigned the young taxi driver was to this officious pointless harassment. As if, were he to put one foot wrong he’d be in serious trouble. The offending policemen were no more than in their late twenties. Heavens help them!
We heard stories from the driver of this taking place regularly. Some passengers had even missed their flights owing to long delays while police examined the taxi driver’s documents!
No wonder that the McCanns do not want the reconstruction of events for a Crimewatch appeal to take place in Portugal … for fear of the police response.
Portugal could do a great deal to help itself … seems the police need a good talking to first of all …
Name and address withheld
